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We went all the way to Los Banos to visit a family whose living room just had an impressive makeover. I say it’s impressive because with the use of very simple strategies, a huge change was created, turning the previous lonely living area into a cozy and inviting entertaining space.

The house has a good foundation to begin with—well designed, naturally-lit home interiors. However, their living room furniture was a collection of antique pieces that do not exactly go together, not to mention too bulky (particularly the upholstered sofa and armchairs) for the limited space.

The Solutions:

1) Make the furniture pieces look coherent. Because the wife’s mother was having her home renovated, needing additional furniture to fill up the big house, the couple gave up the antique sofa set. This allowed them to replace it with a less bulky and more contemporary looking fully upholstered three-seater sofa. The wife chose white for the upholstery to provide a clean and basic contrast against the rest of the wood pieces.

2) Improve the furniture layout. The furniture pieces were pulled away from the walls (to open up the view of the windows) and laid out in a closed arrangement to encourage conversations. The existing printed area rug was replaced with a flat weave plain rug in a neutral color. Apart from the new sofa, the rest of the pieces are existing furniture of the family, such as the antique dowry chest (which was made into a seat with pillows) and hunter’s chair, both from Orientique.

3) Add accent lighting. Like what I always say, lighting is everything. It’s one easy way of changing the look of a space. By just adding floor and table lamps around the living area, an interplay of light and shadow is created, introducing depth and drama to the composition.

4)Accessorize. Accessories (or decorations) are like icing on the cake—they make or break the design. Because of the limited budget, the family simply went through their existing stuff to look for things that would go well with the chosen Asian theme. Coffee table books and framed black & white family photos make inexpensive accessories. Cut philodendron leaves and tropical yellow iris from their garden were placed in vases, completing the whole Asian look.

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[Have you given your space (or furniture) a makeover? Share it with us! Email us about it with before and after pictures at mydesignfolder@yahoo.com. ]

The most significant thing that I learned when I was still a student in interior design is that good design is supposed to be for everyone. It is very sad that in reality, the design practice continues to cater to the elite few of this economically struggling society. I know that having one’s home designed by a professional is definitely not included in the priorities of many Filipino families. I also know that it would be too idealistic to hope that design professionals would lower their design fees so that more people and institutions can afford their services. I only wish that interior designers, and even architects, would organize themselves more often to sponsor (or maybe ask their suppliers to sponsor) projects for the benefit of the less privileged ones. After all, the main thrust of the design profession is to improve the quality of life, right?

Now on its 8th year, the graduating batch of UP Interior Design has been doing design projects to improve facilities of institutions such as public hospitals, public schools, an orphanage, and low-cost housing projects. This is in place of the usual annual design exhibit that most interior design schools organize. UPID thought of this alternative to put the students’ money to a better use. On top of that, it is also meant to support UPID’s advocacy of promoting the value of the interior design as a discipline geared towards improving the lives of people.

This year, the graduating students of UPID, collectively called IDeya(Interior Design by Empowered Young Artists), came up with The Cradle Project, a renovation project for 6 outpatient facilities of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC).

Before the renovation, PCMC looked like a typical public hospital–deteriorated facilities with depressing interiors.

The Cradle Project renovated the following areas: general pediatrics clinic, nephrology, adolescents’ clinic, social services office, nutrition clinic, and children’s library. The design concepts for the areas all centered on creating environments that heal the body, inspire the mind, and uplift the spirit.

Don’t you just love these spaces?! A huge improvement from their previous state. Seeing the renovated clinics is just awe-inspiring. Congratulations to IDeya! I hope that when you go out into the real world, you’ll bring with you the values that you’ve learned from this experience.

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[Have you given your space (or furniture) a makeover? Share it with us! Email us about it with before and after pictures at mydesignfolder@yahoo.com. ]

First up on design folder’s makeover list is UP Diliman’s Office of the Campus Architect (OCA).

Summer of 2002, my friend and I had our apprenticeship in OCA. Sad to say, OCA used to look like our typical government office—office meets storage with an inefficient layout, in a background of two-toned blue and beige walls, blue green cabinet-partitions, very strong exposed fluorescent lamps, and old (and often damaged) furniture pieces. It’s nothing but utilitarian.

It is far from looking like a design office.

But I don’t blame them. Lack of money to improve its facilities is the main culprit. Remember, UP is still a government entity so they have no choice but to make do with what they have.

Last year, in line with the UP’s centennial celebration, OCA hosted a project entitled “Designing Diliman”. It was a photo-exhibit of the Diliman campus through its 100 years.

Since their office will also be the venue of the said exhibit, they were given the chance (and the funds) to improve their facilities. The renovation was headed by OCA’s incumbent director, Arch. Gerard Lico, together with the rest of the design staff.

The project started with the repainting of the corridor walls using a strong red color to act as the vibrant background for the black-and-white photo displays during the exhibit. It instantly gave the space with an edgy, designer-like character together with the blown-up photos on the walls.

One problem of the main architectural/engineering office is that the space is too congested. Logically, the improvement began with having additional staff offices at the adjacent building to relocate some of the personnel from the main office. This allowed them to adopt a spacious and more efficient layout for the area.

They maintained the open plan layout but divided it into two spaces. The smaller space is the more public conference area which is directly accessible from the two entrances of the office, and is partially screened off with a set of varifold display modules from the exhibit. The larger space, on the other hand, is the more private area for the individual workstations. This layout allowed them to have meetings with contractors, suppliers and clients inside the office without disturbing the rest of the staff.

Apart from the improved layout, the rest of the design strategies are fairly simple. Lighting was improved using fluorescent lamp on recessed housings with louvered diffusers for a softer general lighting. A better color scheme was also adopted using an earth-toned palette of warm olive-tinted beige for the walls and ceiling, maroon accent for the columns, and dark walnut finish for the existing cabinets and partitions.

The timely upgrade of their computers, from the old tube monitor to the new lcd monitor, also enhanced the clean appearance of the space.

On top of these basic improvements, a focal point was also introduced in the form of the spruced up conference area to add a rather corporate character to the office. The area features an accent wall in textured charcoal gray ceramic tiles, a new conference table and a set of new black leather chairs. To add more color and visual texture, a maroon lamp drops at the center of the table and a pair of gold-themed paintings hang from the wall.

The end result is an efficient, confident, and corporate-like, design office.

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[Have you given your space (or furniture) a makeover? Share it with us! Email us about it with before and after pictures at mydesignfolder@yahoo.com. ]